13 August 2008

Look alive

Life is a peculiar thing to justify, quantify, or explain. Life is, that’s about as far as we can define it without spiraling into metaphors and philosophical studies. Yet, for me, within Walt Disney World, it is the lack of life that drives the story of occupied lands.

This is a realization I came to in the least likely of spots, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror’s queue. The amount of detail available to soak in while you wait for your elevator, or while you recover from your brush with the Twilight Zone and make your way back to Sunset Blvd., is mind boggling. From luggage and abandoned desks to mail in boxes and a mahjong game that has been abruptly been cut short, life is missing here. That is expected because, after all, the Hollywood Tower Hotel is haunted. However, while standing in line I became conscious of the fact that this absence of life is found throughout Walt Disney World. The only difference is the story we are being told. The lack of people within the Hollywood Tower Hotel makes sense because they shouldn’t be there. But a forsaken raft on the shores of Tom Sawyer Island isn’t telling us the island is haunted it is telling us that, more than likely, there are some scoundrelly boys up to mischief on the island.

This rule the same for abandoned canoes that tell us the rivers are still in use around Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the painter who has left their work in progress near the France pavilion who will return shortly, the empty security booths that are likely due to confrontations with wannabe actors around Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the bits of broken jewelry embedded in the walkways of what is surely a bustling marketplace in Adventureland, and all the crates, oh the many crates, scattered all throughout Walt Disney World. The pots, pans, carpets, radios, set tables, bottles; everything is a sign of life. Life, on a strictly intellectual basis, can be defined by conversation, memory, and the people that are there around us. When looking for signs of life, conversely, it is the things left behind and the absence of people that tells us all the story we need to know.